Highness

I’ve been visiting Edmonton this weekend, spending some time with relatives and also taking in the Fringe festival (both plays and the street fair – lots of fun), and even a visit to the local drop-in knitting at River City Yarns. It’s been a diverting weekend, but also with very little online connection time. And I’ve been meaning to introduce my other recent sock pattern to you, and thankfully this morning I managed to score a whole minute or two at the local Safeway’s Starbucks, so, huzzah! Blog posting time.

Back in the spring, the folks at Lorna’s Laces were so kind enough to send me a skein of their new sock yarn, ‘Solemate,’ to work on a pattern for it. It is a 100% lovely yarn to work with – same fine fingering weight as their tried and true Shepherd Sock, same beautiful colours as their other lines, and with one exceptional twist. It’s not just a merino/nylon sock yarn, but a merino/nylon/Outlast sock yarn! Apparently Outlast is the same fibre used for things like astronaut clothing. It regulates body temperature as you wear it. Well, all I can say is I would be happy to work with this again, and i’m pretty sure it’s going to make some lovely socks. Even the wound-up skein sort of felt cool to the touch on a hot day.

This beautiful pale colourway is called “Buckingham Fountain,” one of their new 2011 colourways. Based on that name, and the fact that the Royal Wedding was still fresh in my memory, I kept thinking, “royal, royal, royal…” and this sock was the result. The pattern is called Highness, and has the right kind of regal, delicate aesthetic I was going for. All the fancy work is in the front, down the instep of the sock…

…with a relatively simple and stable pattern repeating down the back of the leg, for balance. This does feature a few more twisted stitches and small cables, as is my wont (it’s just so hard to put down the twisted stitches, I think they’re hardwired into my brain now), although actually in a more modest fashion than in some of my previous designs. I think the motif comes together sort of like a royal crest hanging outside the palace gates – or so I was thinking as I designed it.

The pattern is available in my Ravelry store for $6, and also on Patternfish. I hope you enjoy it! I can tell that Solemate is going to be one of the new yarns to look out for (I may have to stash up a couple more skeins), and I look forward to working with it again. This is certainly a time for more sock knitting on the horizon, as fall creeps closer. I mean seriously, how did it get to be August 22nd? That’s almost a month since Sock Summit started! I’m not sure i’m ready for summer to be over.

How would you rate your socks regarding skill level? I have knit socks but without designs. This pattern would be one I would like to try but am curious how you would rate it. Your work is definitely inspiring.

If you’ve done socks before then you already know the skills inherent to sock knitting in particular – working in the round, working a heel, and working at a finer gauge. After that, it’s a question of what other skills does the pattern ask of you? So for this one – I would say if you’re comfortable working from a chart, and working small cables, (or don’t mind learning these as you go), then you’re all good!

I do have some tutorials listed at the blog sidebar, on working cables without a cable needle, if that helps! 🙂

The back of the sock looks wonderful too — twisted stitches patterns are a favorite of mine. I live in San Francisco so the Solemate yarn might be perfect as it’s often too cold for sandals but too warm for wool socks.